


The World of Skies

by Kybee1497



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), But I do what I want, College AU, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, I guess that’s accurate, Lowkey Crack, M/M, Merman Alex, Minor Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, and Alex is stressed x10, and an intense hatred of proving his parents right, and so does alex, as per usual, because i have a potty mouth, chill willie, i still love bobby tho, idk if it counts as crack, in lowkey mean to Trevor in this, just cause he’s a bad roommate, look at that progress, merman au, no beta we die like the himbos, rating is for the swears, stuck between a rock and a hardplace, supremely unchill alex, theyre less dumb than usual, with an intense hatred of the human world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29839374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kybee1497/pseuds/Kybee1497
Summary: He ended the mini rant a few decibels short of a screech and would have been embarrassed but well, there were better things to be embarrassed about when sprawled on the ground behind a dumpster, tail on full display.“Okay Goldie, let's take a deep breath. In and out, there you go.”Alex glared at him while he worked on his breathing. It was actually helping but he was mad about it. Stupid humans, and their stupid water weapons, and their stupid breathing techniques that worked.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 8
Kudos: 66





	The World of Skies

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to Disaster Gays™️! This week they have their shit slightly more put together. Not that that’s saying a lot. 
> 
> Inspired by a tumblr prompt I found on a deep dive on Pinterest. 
> 
> I don’t have a lot to say so enjoy and as always, I thrive off comments and kudos, so let me know what you think. :)

Some days Alex couldn’t remember why in the hell he’d left the safe, calm,  _ boring _ sea for the human world.

Yes, he wanted to explore new places. He wanted to learn. There was such a vast amount of knowledge out there that he couldn’t reach from his home in the waves. He did his best, snatching bits of information here and there. 

Stealing books from passing ships and doing his best to keep them dry until he could reach the little cavern he’d squared away. Spending his days sprawled out on the sandy beach of his own little haven. Tail draped over a rock and trailing into the cool water, waving lazily as he read. 

Surfacing closer and closer to the beach every day, listening to the humans talk, the stories they shared. Stories of first dates and love. Stories of difficult exams and arguments. Stories of family and support and love. 

Things were different in the human world. There was beauty in so many things. There was endless knowledge and he wanted to experience all the world had to offer. 

~~~~

The human world was bullshit. He’d been here for six months and he was sick of it. It was loud and messy and there were people literally everywhere. He wasn’t used to being surrounded by other people constantly. They were in his classes, the coffee shop, the quad, the library, hallways, bathrooms, his dorm room. He had a roommate. There was another person who lived in his tiny room, his space. He didn’t even  _ like _ this person and they were supposed to sleep in the same space. It was ridiculous. 

And people were loud. They never stopped talking or making noise. The building itself was always making noise. It drove him crazy. As a ‘creature of the sea’ as his parents had condescendingly put it when he told them he wanted to see the world, he had sensitive ears. His hearing was exceptional compared to humans because living underwater dulled every sound and his ears needed to adjust for that. Even then, as a merman, he picked up on a lot of sounds as vibrations that he felt through the water. 

The one bright part of the human world, other than learning, was music. Sometimes when he got overwhelmed by everything crashing in, he needed straight silence. To shut out all the noise and focus himself. 

But sometimes he used music. He laid on the floor of his room, turned the bass up and the volume down and stuck ear plugs in. He just closed his eyes and let the vibrations of the music wash over him. It felt like being home again. To shut out all the noise and only take in what he could process in the moment.

He was overwhelmed a lot. Between trying to avoid water as much as possible in order to keep his secret. And then going through withdrawal because his body didn’t understand why it wasn’t in water more often. His skin was dry as shit, and it hurt. And the constant never ending noise and his inability to get away from people, he was constantly operating at a low level of anxiety. 

His roommate did not help the problem. Always having people over. Or leaving his things all over the room. Or steal-  _ borrowing _ Alex’s good expensive lotion that kept him from wanting to rip his skin off. His roommate -Trevor- was always there and in Alex’s space and it was just a lot. 

They were also approaching the end of the term and apparently his professors thought that meant they needed to add to the homework load instead of lightening it. Alex had been up studying until almost three in the morning and he was exhausted and a little strung out, which led to him starfished on the dorm room floor. After he’d shoved a pile of Trevor’s shit to his side of the room of course, because Trevor was allergic to keeping his stuff contained. 

So he had starfished on the floor, ear plugs in and music up loud and just let the vibrations travel from the floor and up into his chest. Trying to recenter himself and relax a bit before his quiz this morning. 

It worked for a bit and he was almost back down to his low, constant level of anxiety instead of jittery, when the door slammed open, throwing Alex out of his focus. He could cry, he really could. 

Picking his head up he pulled out an ear plug and glared at Trevor’s confused face, “What?”

Trevor just tilted his head to the side, “What are you doing? You do know it’s 9:55 right, bro? Don’t you have a quiz in five minutes?”

Alex’s eyes shot wide and he scrambled up off the floor, yanking the other ear plug out, he tossed them on the bed. He grabbed his bag and sunglasses and took off out the door.  _ Fuck, fuck, fuck _ ! Oh my god, this was so not good. Any calm he’d managed to achieve from the last forty-five minutes on the floor was long gone. Not only was he more stressed than he had been to start with, he was late. He was late for the quiz and his professor was going to yell at him and he wouldn’t pass and he would have to go home. 

He refused to go home. He refused to give his parents the satisfaction of knowing they were right. That he couldn’t hack it in the human world. That he didn’t belong there. They would never let it go and their friends wouldn’t let it go. Failing a quiz and mild public humiliation was not enough to send him running home. He refused. Anxiety had gotten him out of many things but the spite getting him into things was stronger. 

That was how he found himself darting across the courtyard, dodging carefree students who definitely were not late for an exam, enjoying the first truly warm day of spring. Glancing at the watch on his list he saw he had less than two minutes to get across campus. 

Spotting an alley that offered a shortcut to his destination, he decided to cut through. Normally he avoided tight spaces with limited exits as a safety measure. He was used to being bigger and needing more space to defend himself or get away. He hated tight spaces, but it was a short alleyway and he really didn’t want to miss this test. So weighing the odds quickly, he decided it was worth it under this specific set of circumstances. 

It wasn’t. In his hurry, he had failed to register the group of students using the roofs surrounding the alleyway as territory in a water balloon fight. He was halfway through and in the home stretch with ninety seconds to spare when he heard a warning shout right before something rubbery hit him, bursting on impact and thoroughly soaking him in water. He froze for a split second, a brief moment to think  _ oh fuck _ , before he was scanning the area for an exit, a door, someplace to hide. 

At the end of the alleyway, there was a dumpster against the brick wall. There was just enough space for Alex to wiggle himself in and have some semblance of cover once his tail appeared.

He didn’t even hesitate, sprinting for it as fast as he could, ignoring the apologetic shouts behind him, and diving into the sheltered space just in time. Wedging himself as far back as he could, he gave up as he felt his entire body start to tingle and pop, his legs disappearing and tail forming in their place. 

Leaning back on his elbows, he let his head flop back with a groan. Well, he definitely wouldn’t be making it to his quiz now. He would be lucky if no one saw him. Behind a dumpster really wasn’t a good hiding space, especially with a huge ass tail. He would have to wait until he dried out enough that he could change back. Which, judging by the slimy goo he was currently laying in, because he was on the ground  _ behind a dumpster, _ would be quite a while. 

Why in the hell had he decided to go to the human world again? He would meet people, people sucked. He would learn new things, the structure of college was stressful. They seemed more interested in his ability to spit their words back in exams, than in making sure students actually learned. It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and now he was here, behind a dumpster, laying in goo, with his tail out in broad daylight for a world that had definitely not been what he was expecting. 

So yeah, he was annoyed, and stressed but the stress wasn’t new. His parents said he was an anxious baby as well, whatever the fuck that meant. It’s not like they were patient, or really even that loving. It was always ‘Go do this, Alexander.’ or ‘Be useful for once, Alexander.’ or ‘For heaven's sake, Alexander, don’t embarrass us like that.’ As awful as the human world was, at least he was away from that. 

“Hey, are you okay?” A worried voice from around the dumpster caught Alex’s attention and he froze. Maybe if he didn’t say anything they would leave? 

“I’m really sorry about that, dude, I told Carrie to hold off on that last balloon but she was already throwing it before she heard me.”

Alex still didn’t say anything. Okay, so the guy definitely knew he was there but Alex might get lucky and he would leave. Please, just let him leave. 

He wasn’t lucky though as the voice came closer, footsteps sounding around the dumpster and coming to a stop in front of Alex, “Can I- oh shit!”

Alex’s eyes flew open in panic and he tried to move back but there wasn’t enough space. Of course the guy wouldn’t just drop it. Fuck, six months of hiding and being so careful and he was only found out because he was late for a quiz and a stupid water balloon fight. That was just his luck. 

The guy raised his hands in a placating gesture and backed up a few steps before crouching down and scanning Alex from head to fin. “How can I help?”

Alex narrowed his eyes, “Can you just forget you ever saw anything?”

The guy grinned, “Nope.” was his cheerful reply. 

Alex groaned again. Humans were the worst. “God, this day can’t get any worse.” At the guys questioning hum, Alex opened the floodgates. “I can’t go anywhere until I dry off, and I’m laying in goo, so who knows how long that’s going to take. I’m missing my lit test right now. I’m going to fail the class and I’ll have to drop out and go home and my parents will never let me live this down. This is the worst day, I swear to Triton. What am I going to  _ do? _ ” He ended the mini rant a few decibels short of a screech and would have been embarrassed but well, there were better things to be embarrassed about when sprawled on the ground behind a dumpster, tail on full display. 

“Okay Goldie, let's take a deep breath. In and out, there you go.”

Alex glared at him while he worked on his breathing. It was actually helping but he was mad about it. Stupid humans, and their stupid water weapons, and their stupid breathing techniques that worked. 

“You’re doing great. Okay, how heavy is the tail?”

“What the fuck kind of question is that?”

He held up his hands to placate Alex again, “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant I can help you.”

“How do you think you’re going to be able to help me? My tail isn’t going anywhere until I’m dry. I’m stuck here.” Alex was working himself up to a panic again when the nuisance interrupted his thoughts. 

“Focus, man. No freaking out again. You don’t have to dry off first. I can give you a lift back to your dorm.”

“You’re going to give me a lift?” Alex raised a brow, unimpressed with the turn of events.

“Yeah, it’s why I was wondering how heavy the tail is. I can carry you no problem but if the tail’s a hundred pounds it’s going to be a bit tricky.”

“It’s heavy, but not that heavy? I think? Um, side note though, how are you planning on getting me across campus without anyone seeing THE TAIL?” 

The guy laughed, shoulders shaking and nose scrunching up. The guy was  _ cute _ . Now that Alex had been shaken out of his frustration and panic, he realized that the guy crouching in front of him was gorgeous. Shoulder length brown hair, golden skin and laughing brown eyes. He was sunshine in a human body. 

Alex snapped out of his daze, flushing as the guy started talking again. “We don’t need to hide the tail dude. This is college, nobody’s going to see it and think merman. They’ll assume it's a costume or you work at the aquarium or something. I’m pretty sure we even have a mermaid club, not that there’s more than a handful of people in it, but still.”

Alex opened his mouth, trying to come up with a response and couldn’t, he shut his mouth, frowning. Finally he sighed and looked back up at the guy, “You really think that would work?”

“Hell yeah, dude! At the worst you’ll have people bugging you about where you got such a realistic tail. No biggie.”

“Fine. How do we do this?”

The guy hopped up to his feet grinning, “Okay, so, let me shove the dumpster out of the way a bit so we have more room to work with.”

Alex flinched, closing his eyes at the horrible screeching sound of the metal of the dumpster on the pavement. At least it was out of the way and he could breathe again. Even if he did feel exposed and his ears were still ringing.

With the dumpster out of the way, the guy crouched down at his side, surveying Alex. “Let's do this thing. Can you sit up at all?”

Sighing, Alex shoved himself up so he was sitting. It was hard to balance with his tail straight in front of him and not curled at all but he managed it for now. 

“Great! Okay, wrap your arm around my shoulders and then if you can move your tail just enough I can get an arm under you without scraping my knuckles on the concrete.” 

Alex hesitated. He hadn’t been that close to someone since he’d arrived in the human world and he was very aware of the fact that when his tail arrived, his shirt had disappeared. Which wasn’t a big deal at home but most humans didn’t get up close and personal with other humans when they were shirtless. At least not humans they weren’t familiar with. 

“Hey man, it’s okay. We can totally just take a breather. This is probably super stressful. I really didn’t mean to out your secret like that.”

Alex took a shaky breath in, holding it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly. “It probably would have happened eventually. I can’t believe it was a water balloon of all things that took me out. Rubber filled with water, the audacity.”

The guy giggled. “At least it will be a fun story to tell down the road. Defeated by latex.” 

“Oh yeah, hilarious. Okay let's do this. Don’t drop me.”

“Aye, aye, captain. Alright, lean forward a bit.” 

With a bit of wiggling and a soft grunt, his helper had an armful of Alex and was staggering to his feet. “Dude, don’t take this the wrong way, but is that tail all muscle? Jesus!”

Alex sniffed, slightly offended as he clung to the guy's neck and prayed he wouldn’t get dropped in the middle of the courtyard, tail out in all its glory. He knew the guy was convinced it wouldn’t be a big deal but Alex was still anxious. Not that that was saying a lot, he was always anxious. 

He risked a glance up and met warm brown eyes, less than a foot away from his and froze for a second. Why was this guy so pretty? It was so unfair. If Alex was going to get caught in uncomfortable positions, it wasn’t fair for the other person to be so pretty. It should be against the laws of the universe or something. 

He smiled softly, “I’m Willie, by the way. Sorry, I should have introduced myself before getting all up in your personal space.”

Alex giggled, honest to Triton giggled. Someone kill him, just smite him down, turn him to sea foam. He’d had enough of this shit. But what he said was, “Alex.”

Willie giggled, why wasn’t it weird when Willie did it? When Willie did it, it was adorable. When Alex did it, he sounded like a sea lion. 

“Nice to meet you Alex, now where should I take you?”

Alex paused before he could say his dorm. Trevor would probably still be there and wouldn’t buy the fake tail excuse. Alex was wound too tight to be the merman type. From a human standpoint anyways. “Fuck, I don’t know. My roommate’s still in our room and he won’t believe that I bought a fake tail. I don’t know where to go.” 

He was panicking again. Yep, definitely panicking. Willie’s voice cut in before he could get too far down the spiral of doom. “No worries dude, we can just go to my room. My roommate is practically living with his girlfriend already. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were engaged before graduation.”

How the hell did Willie manage to do that? He always started talking, coming up with solutions, when Alex was on the verge of freaking out and it distracted him just enough that he could refocus and shove the panic away a bit. 

“Yeah, okay that works.” His voice came out a bit shaky but steadier than he had been expecting.. 

“Awesome, it’s not too far. Just cross the quad and three buildings down. Just like let me do the talking if anyone asks questions.” Alex bristled at the assumption that he wouldn’t be up for answering questions but also, he really didn’t want to answer questions, or talk to anyone, or have anyone look at him. He just wanted his legs back and to sprawl out on the floor for at least an hour. Actually he really wanted to go for a swim but that wasn’t realistic. 

With a start he realized they were moving. Exiting the side street he’d darted down looking for a hiding spot. Reaching the quad wasn’t as bad as Alex was expecting. People stared a little but there wasn’t any screaming, or swarming crowds or black suvs screeching up and pouring out men in black to lock him up. And really he didn’t know how much of the staring was due to the tail, or the fact that he was shirtless, or being carried by Willie, or all of the above. 

Just then a couple fell into place next to Willie. The shaggy haired guy with what appeared to be an allergy to sleeves, or shirts that covered  _ anything _ was gaping a bit. “Dude, Willie, what the hell? Where’d you find a hot merman?” Willie snorted and the curly haired girl smacked Mr. Anti-Sleeves. 

“Boundaries, Luke!” 

She turned to Alex, “Sorry about him, he has no filter, or manners apparently. I’m Julie, that’s Luke.”

Alex nodded, smiling slightly. He wasn’t exactly thrilled about meeting people with his tail out in broad daylight but they seemed nice. Well Julie seemed nice, Luke seemed like a hyperactive puppy. 

“Luke, weren’t you staying at Julie’s for a weekend long songwriting session?” Willie asked, only slightly breathless from carrying Alex. 

“We’re taking a break. Julie said fifteen hours without food was too long and we needed breakfast. Besides, the weekend hasn’t technically started yet. Anyways, how’d you meet your mer-friend?”

Willie sighed, “My boyfriend, Alex-'' Alex choked and Willie glanced at him in amusement before continuing, “As I was saying. My boyfriend, Alex, is a merman performer at the aquarium on the coast and he ordered this hyper realistic new tail that he was going to take to the pool to try on except for he’s an idiot, and put it on in his room, and it takes forever to get on and off so I’m just giving him a lift to the pool because I’m nice like that.”

Luke snorted and Willie frowned at him. “Okay so I wanted to see him swim in it, leave me alone.”

Oh Triton, why did Alex agree to let Willie do the talking? He was terrible at this. Too many details, embarrassing details. Judging by the pink tint to Willie’s cheeks, he hadn’t meant to say half of that either. 

They seemed to buy it though, Luke was nodding like it made perfect sense. Julie was just gazing at Luke fondly, like she knew he was a dumbass, but her dumbass. Just then Luke perked up, “Can I touch it? It looks so real!” 

“No!” Willie and Alex shout at the same time and Alex is grateful for the back up but also, ow. That was very loud, right next to his ear. Willie glanced down in apology and lowered his voice when he continued. “It was expensive as fuck, Luke. Keep your grubby paws off.”

“Hey!” Luke was offended 

Julie pulled him back however. “He’s right babe. Alex  _ just  _ got that and something that realistic must have been crazy expensive. Also Willie probably doesn’t want you touching his boyfriends legs. Also, Alex just met you and probably also doesn’t want you touching his legs.”

Luke flushed a bit, looking at Alex. “Sorry man, I didn’t think about that part.” 

“No worries. Thanks for asking first.”

“Obviously, I’m not completely hopeless with boundaries,  _ Julie _ .”

She just shook her head, “Don’t even start with me. There’s the dining hall, let’s go get breakfast and then I want to go over that chord progression again.”

Luke's attention sufficiently diverted, they veered away. Heads pressed together as they went off on a tangent, throwing goodbyes over their shoulders as they went.

Alex laughed, looking up at Willie again. “The roommate and his soon to be fiancée?”

“That would be them.” Willie groaner, “Sorry about them. They’re a lot if you’re not expecting it.”

Alex nodded, relaxing more into Willie’s arms. The heat soaking through his thin shirt, was starting to lull Alex into a sort of relaxation. It reminded him of sunning himself on the rocks off the beach, tucked in between the cliffs where he couldn’t be seen. Sun warming him to his bones and water lapping at his fingertips, tail swaying in the light current. 

It was odd to find such a soothing piece of home in the arms of someone he just met, especially with his tail out in public. Though he supposed that wouldn’t last much longer as they were reaching Willie’s building. 

Alex had to open the door when they reached it. It was an awkward shuffle but they managed it. They got a few side eyes on their way down the hall but there weren’t that many people inside. Everyone either in their rooms, classes, or outside enjoying the sunshine. 

He was mostly dry by the time they reached Willie’s dorm room. Alex had to dig the key out of Willie’s pocket because he’d almost dropped Alex when he’d tried. 

Opening the door, Willie deposited Alex on a hastily made bed with warm flannel sheets. How he managed to make a dorm bed that comfortable Alex had no idea. 

Disappearing around the corner into the bathroom, Alex heard Willie running the sink before he emerged with a wet washcloth and a dry one. 

At Alex’s questioning look, he grinned sheepishly. I figured you could get the goo off with the wet rag and then dry off with the other one. And then just wait out the switch. 

That was… actually really sweet. “Can you help me? I can’t really reach it and my balance is terrible with the tail when I’m on land.”

Willie cleared his throat and nodded, walking around to stand behind Alex. Warm cloth met his bare skin and he twitched, not expecting it even though he knew it was coming. Willie gently ran the cloth over his back, cleaning off the dumpster goo, and doing an extra once over to be sure. 

Alex shivered lightly as the cool air brushed over damp skin and Willie was quick to dry him off as much as possible. Standing up, he threw the rags in the hamper and turned back to Alex. “Do you want a blanket or something?”

“Um, that would be great thank you.”

Grabbing a blanket off the desk chair, Willie draped it over Alex’s shoulders, “No worries, man.”

“How long have you been a merman anyways? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Alex shot him a confused look, “My whole life? Mermen are born, not made.”

“Wait really? How long have you been… not in the ocean?” Willie grimaced at his phrasing and Alex laughed. 

“Like six-ish months, I think. I wanted to learn and see new things. I wasn’t expecting the human world to be so loud and full and just, so much.” He looked up, catching the shadow that passed over Willie’s face at the words. “It’s not all bad, though. Things are definitely looking up, there’s a lot to like.”

Willie grinned, the happiness that flooded his face made Alex’s breath catch. Willie was just so pretty. 

And then his breath caught again as the tingles and pops flooded his body. With a slightly more painful than usual crunch, Alex’s tail was gone and his legs were back. He shrugged off the blanket, stretching. He loved his tail and normally wasn’t excited to see it go but this really wasn’t the best time for it to be out and tail like. 

So for once he was happy to be back in the soft jeans and thin pink t shirt. It was too dark inside for sunglasses, so he pushed them up. Using them to keep his hair out of his eyes. Popping his knuckles, he turned back to Willie who was staring at him, cheeks pink and mouth hanging open slightly. 

“Wow!” Willie snapped his mouth shut, flushing darker, like he hadn’t meant to say that allowed. 

“Thank you for helping me today, and keeping me less panicked than usual.”

“Yeah, no problem, man. Sorry for hitting you with the water balloon, or well, Carrie hitting you with a water balloon.”

Alex laughed, “it could have been worse.”

Willie nodded. He looked down for a second before seeming to steel himself and faced Alex again. “Do you want to maybe get breakfast?”

Alex nodded, smiling softly, “I would love too.”

So it definitely hadn’t gone the way he was expecting the day to, but it could have been worse. And hey, maybe the human world was growing on him after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from ‘Down to the Sea’ from The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
> 
> Cause it’s vaguely mermaidy, that movie was my childhood, and I’m tired


End file.
